Proof proves undeniably that the intimacy of a stage play can be re-created powerfully on screen.

Sheer power, moral and otherwise. It possesses a massively majestic hero. [10 Dec 1997, p.D1]

Jack Goes Boating won't knock you over, but it lulls you with its slow-warming heart.

Little ones may squirm during the more literary parts, but the sappy tunes by Paul Williams make fine potty breaks. Adults will enjoy the gently mocking tone - Rizzo asks whether the ghostly goings-on will scare kids. ''Nah,'' replies Gonzo. ''This is culture.'' As for the Muppets, it's great to see them together again on the big screen. God bless them, every one. [11 Dec 1992, p.4D]

Peter is as adequate as the Harry Potter movies are, though you never sense in either case that kids are being bitten with the permanent movie-loving bug.

For those who don't equate sexual appetite with the intricacies of fly fishing, Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 is more tiresome than titillating.

The voice talent behind Robots reads like a who's who of comic actors...But too much reliance is placed on their star power and not enough on an interesting and fresh idea.

The movie is successful at finding little details that make it feel lived-in and authentic.

Even when the movie works, it's so much like having Daffy Duck assault your face that you want to buy a box set of elevator music for the calming drive home.

Usually, I'm as slow as the pacing of a movie in figuring out who's done it. If you can't solve this mystery with an hour to go (as I did), better call for a transfusion so a better type of blood will start flowing to your brain.

But it does mine Murphy's gifts, and the payoff is both nutty and funny. Sometimes even touching, too. [28Jun1996 Pg.01.D]

It's a family drama that treads on well-worn middle-class territory but is redeemed by the complexity of the characters and the intriguing ambiguity of their actions.

The computer-generated wolves have more personality than any of the dull characters in The Grey.

With Serial Mom, the renegade director/writer kicks the nation smack in its collective groin, marvelously mocking the oh-so-current mania over crime figures and tabloid scandals. [13 Apr 1994, p.1D]

Once again, the anchor aboard this ship of fools is the drolly doltish Leslie Nielsen, who can deliver lines like "I like my sex the way I play basketball - one on one, with as little dribbling as possible" as if they were first-class mail. Let's hope Zucker and Co. quit while they are ahead. [18 Mar 1994, p.4D]

This is the kind of movie that has always polarized serious film folk, while the public usually elects to stay home and prune shrubs.

Willis' performance mystifies, while Mos Def's mesmerizes.

With a half-dozen characters sorting out life's woes, the pacing is a couple of beats faster than languorous — just enough to sustain one's interest.

Unfaithful doesn't push the melodrama the way "Attraction" did, but it lingers in the mind as much.

When we first see Meryl Streep's happy homemaker in One True Thing, she's a domestic dinosaur circa late '80s, a regular mommy monster. [18 September 1998, p.3E]

The moving and eye-popping thriller, starring a never-better John David Washington, dives into the hot-button topic of artificial intelligence but more importantly mankind's tendency toward war and how we treat those different than us.

Young girls will enjoy Lohan's matchmaking antics. But nostalgia-craving oldsters should stick to fond memories of Hayley [Mills]'s heyday.

Hong Kong's China-born cult director makes his U.S. debut here, serving up so many briskly staged and edited action scenes that you'll wager Sam Peckinpah somehow figured in his gene pool. Forget grenades and assault weapons (though they're here, too); Target deals in bows and arrows, a serpent booby-trap and even one portly hero (Wilford Brimley) on horseback. All this and Brimley's Cajun accent, too. [20 Aug 1993, p.1D]

Even without the surprise of seeing Spader going for laughs and getting them, Secretary is just too original to be ignored.

If it's conventional, it's also competent. Thanks to director Charles Stone III (of the famed "Whassuup?!" Budweiser spots), the clichés at least have a good beat.

This genre-busting movie has the appearance of a love story but morphs into a thriller, told cleverly in a nonlinear style. Think "Sliding Doors" crossed with "The Sixth Sense," with a little "Memento" thrown in.

Out of Time seems out of another time and place. Remember "Presumed Innocent?"

Emmerich might have had a masterpiece, but he'll have to settle for what comes close to being a must-see movie today.